It's man versus beast captured in astonishing gameplay, creating one great memory after another. It's too bad it only clocks in at six hours. The final scene in NY is a letdown, as well. Regardless, this shouldn't steer you away from one of the most intense adventures to date.

King Kong the movie won't be released into theaters for another few weeks but Ubi Soft knows that missing the all important November release date could spell trouble for game sales, especially if movie reviews are lackluster even if the game happens to be great; which it most certainly is for the most part. If you're a diehard Kong fan and don't want to ruin the movie experience I can only highly recommend NOT playing the game as it follows the events of the movie.

Forget everything you know about big name movie licensed games. Forget that they're often rushed out the door, that gameplay is sub-par, and that marketing dictates all. Peter Jackson's King Kong is the exception to the rule. It may be based on a Hollywood film, but underneath it all, this is one gorgeous, expertly designed action-adventure.

There are so many ways to describe King Kong that we have trouble narrowing it down to just one. It's a great example of a movie tie-in that is easy to play, it's a successful combination of a first-person adventure and a third-person beat-'em-up, and at times it even feels like a dungeon crawler. But at its core, it's an extremely good (and extremely simple) survival horror game.

In the end, if a PS2 is all you own, King Kong is one of the better action games you can buy for it; but if you are one of the lucky few who own an Xbox 360 already, as well, then the 360 version is definitely the one to go for, even despite the extra $10 markup – which is pure advantage-taking by Ubisoft, but they're hardly alone in that. Oh well. Anyway, like I said at the beginning, King Kong is definitely an exception to the rule that all movie-adaptation games suck. This one most definitely does not.

It’s common knowledge that when it comes to games based on movies, the good ones are few and far between. And by that we mean that most of them are cynically produced crap; horribly under-funded and under-developed, made as an afterthought to be nothing more than just an expensive piece of merchandise. It takes something truly special to break the mould and become a good game in its own right.

King Kong should make one thing abundantly clear: Ubisoft’s Michel Ancel is one of the industry’s most gifted game creators. A vast majority of this game is a seminar on how to create a world that is intense and dramatic, as well as providing gameplay that’s both deep enough for hardcore gamers and intuitive enough for even the most casual movie fan. In terms of truly capturing the spirit of the film on which it’s based, Kong is probably the most accomplished movie-to-game translation to date, due in part to the close partnership between Ancel and director Peter Jackson.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game Of The Movie is a very solid game that is a lot of fun. The biggest issue I had with the game is its length. It is a rather short game, and because of that, I would suggest renting it first before using your hard earned money to buy it. Other than the length, King Kong is a great, and it would have been even better if you could play as King Kong more. I would highly recommend this game to just about anyone looking for a something a little different.

Michel Ancel is one of the most masterful, yet most under-appreciated game developers in the industry. The creator of Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil – the Frenchman has made some of the best games to ever grace any game system. The industry calls him the “French Miyamoto” – a direct comparison to Nintendo’s own creative genius.

The game itself picks up right as the ship reaches the gloomy island. You open your eyes to see the world through the perspective of Jack, just as he's being lowered in a rowboat, along with Denham, Ann, and a pair of sailors, to set forth for the shore. It's stormy waters, and sure enough, things go awry when large chunks of rock begin plummeting into the sea, right near your boat. You wake up on the beach, with the almost angelic Ann standing over you. You're marooned, confused, and wondering what those horrible, beastly shrieks are that are coming from further within the island. All this happens before you even pick up a weapon, and you'll honestly spend the first 10 minutes or so of the game just looking around, taking in the scenery and gaining your bearings.

So, what's wrong with Kong? Well, like most Hollywood blockbuster movies, it is more a triumph of style over substance, and in this case the lack of substance comes in the form of a quite short running time - you should crack the game open in under ten hours easily on your first run-through. There are additional objectives and better stuff to unlock as you go along, so there's some incentive to replay it - beyond the fact that it's one of the simplest and yet most captivating games to come along for a long while - but there's no denying that on the games scale, this feels a little lightweight. It's probably fairer to judge it on the movie side of things - for the equivalent of seven or so movie tickets, you're getting a similar amount of play content.

As such, it's fair to say that Kong will probably pop up in the second-hand bins of your favorite local software emporium rather quicker than many of this year’s biggest hits do - but at the same time it's a game that everyone should play. It's also a title that anyone making a movie tie-in should study very carefully, as it solidly creates a new standard for such titles. If all movie tie-ins are as fun as Kong, we're in for a bright gaming future indeed.

With New Zealand Director Peter Jackson having achieved both technical and artistic merits with his triple-crown adaptation of J. R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, the man Elijah Woods once called a "hobbit" has reached the state of the Midas touch. From now on nearly everything he's involved with glows with promise. That he would be so open to work with a game company such as Ubisoft shouldn't come as such a surprise... but it is. What directors other than the Wachowski brothers have worked so closely with a videogame company and given such access to their development team, processes, and assets?

This Christmas he will release his first film since the Rings conclusion – King Kong. Early clips and teaser trailers sent our anticipation meter through the roof. We could only dream about the intense battles that await Kong and his most lethal adversary, T-Rex. Or will his most lethal adversary turn out to be man?

In the end, King Kong comes off as an uneven experience, but one with plenty of invigorating moments that make the whole thing feel worth it. You're ultimately left with the feeling that it was a bit rushed, however, which makes you wonder what the game would have been like had it the proper time to germinate. I won't hesitate to say, however, that during its best moments, it's certainly one of the most exciting and engrossing games I've played in a long time. It's just unfortunate that the apparent cut corners take the wind out of its sails sometimes. That said, it's certainly worth experiencing, though if you're concerned about length, know that Kong is fairly short. Consider this when making the "rent or buy" decision.

Despite being an oh-so-easy-to-dislike game of movie, King Kong is a strong effort, and although it never reaches the pinnacle of the sub-genre alongside the likes of the legendary Goldeneye or The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, it can proudly sit on the next tier beneath them. Although the Kong sections and the overall conciseness bring things down a little, it is still a fantastically entertaining game, and well worth a look if you are a fan of the movie or of first-person adventures. Did I mention how rubbish those Kong sections are?!